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Abstract:

Systems, methods, and media for executing and optimizing the performance
of online marketing initiatives are provided herein. Methods may include
the steps of receiving input corresponding to one or more marketing
initiatives, each of the one or more online marketing initiatives
including at least one entry asset, generating one or more online
marketing initiatives from the received input, providing the one or more
online marketing initiatives to one or more presentation servers for
publishing the one or more marketing initiative to one or more platforms,
receiving tracking data for at least one of the one or more marketing
initiatives, comparing the tracking data to one or more performance
metrics to determine the performance of the at least one marketing
initiative, and storing at least one of the tracking data and the
performance metric in a database coupled to at least one of the web
server and the one or more presentation servers.

Claims:

1. A method for executing and optimizing the performance of online
marketing initiatives, comprising: receiving, via a web server, input
corresponding to one or more marketing initiatives, each of the one or
more online marketing initiatives including at least one asset;
generating, via the web server, one or more online marketing initiatives
from the received input; providing the one or more online marketing
initiatives to one or more presentation servers for publishing the one or
more marketing initiative to one or more platforms; receiving, from the
one or more presentation servers, tracking data for at least one of the
one or more marketing initiatives; comparing the tracking data to one or
more performance metrics to determine the performance of the at least one
marketing initiative; and storing at least one of the tracking data and
the performance metric in a database coupled to at least one of the web
server and the one or more presentation servers.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more online
marketing initiatives each further include at least one entry asset that
includes any of a banner, a web page, a hyperlink, an interactive image,
an interactive video, and combinations thereof.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more online
marketing initiatives each further include at least one goal asset that
includes any of a landing web page, a web form, a click through, an
advertisement, a promotion, a coupon, and combinations thereof.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein tracking data includes
visitor interactions with at least one of the at least one asset and the
at least one goal asset.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more platforms
includes an RSS and news feeds, a web content aggregator, a web engine,
one or more web pages, social networking medias, a search engine, an
online ad engine, a banner engine, online news groups, forums, standard
web applications, mobile web applications, and combinations thereof.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving input
corresponding to one or more online marketing initiatives from a global
marketing framework.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising evaluating the
tracking data to: determine information corresponding visitor
interactions with the at least one asset associated with at least one of
the one or more marketing initiatives; and obtain demographic information
corresponding to each visitor.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the performance metric
includes an aggregate number of visitors who access the at least one goal
asset via the at least one asset for each of the one or more marketing
initiatives.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: generating, via
the web server, one or more visual representations corresponding to at
least a portion of the tracking data relative to the performance metric
for the at least one marketing initiative; and providing the visual
representations via the web server to one or more client devices.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating a
visual representation of the performance metric for the at least one
marketing initiative and providing the visual representation to a client
device via the web server.

11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising selectively
modifying the at least one marketing initiative based upon the
performance metric by modifying the at least one asset of the at least
one marketing initiative.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein selectively modifying the
at least one marketing initiative causes corresponding modifications in
additional marketing initiatives associated with the at least one
marketing initiative.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising selecting at
least one of the one or more online marketing initiatives for which
tracking data is to be received before the step of receiving

14. A system for executing and optimizing the performance of online
marketing initiatives, comprising: a memory for storing executable
instructions for evaluating the performance of online marketing
initiatives; a processor configured to execute the instructions stored in
the memory to: receive, via a web server, input corresponding to one or
more marketing initiatives, each of the one or more online marketing
initiatives including at least one asset; generate, at the web server,
one or more online marketing initiatives from the received input; provide
the one or more online marketing initiatives to one or more presentation
servers for publishing the one or more marketing initiative to one or
more platforms; receive, from the one or more presentation servers,
tracking data for at least one of the one or more marketing initiatives;
compare the tracking data to the at least one goal asset to determine a
performance metric for the at least one marketing initiative; and store
the tracking data in a database.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the one or more online
marketing initiatives each further include at least one entry asset that
includes any of a banner, a web page, a hyperlink, an interactive image,
an interactive video, and combinations thereof.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein the one or more online
marketing initiatives each further include at least one goal asset that
includes any of a landing web page, an advertisement, a promotion, a
coupon, and combinations thereof.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein tracking data includes
visitor interactions with at least one of the at least one asset and the
at least one goal asset.

18. The system according to claim 14, wherein the one or more platforms
includes an RSS and news feeds, a web content aggregator, a web engine,
one or more web pages, social networking medias, a search engine, an
online ad engine, a banner engine, online news groups, forums, standard
web applications, mobile web applications, and combinations thereof.

19. The system according to claim 14, wherein the processor is further
adapted to execute the instructions to receive input corresponding to one
or more online marketing initiatives from a global marketing framework.

20. The system according to claim 14, wherein the processor is further
adapted to execute the instructions to evaluate the tracking data to:
determine information corresponding visitor interactions with the at
least one asset associated with at least one of the one or more marketing
initiatives; and obtain demographic information corresponding to each
visitor.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the performance metric
includes an aggregate number of visitors who access the at least one goal
asset via the at least one asset for each of the one or more marketing
initiatives.

22. The system according to claim 14, wherein the processor is further
adapted to generate one or more visual representations corresponding to
at least a portion of the tracking data relative to the performance
metric for the at least one marketing initiative and providing the visual
representations via the web server.

23. The system according to claim 22, further comprising selectively
modifying the at least one marketing initiative based upon the
performance metric.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein selectively the at least
one marketing initiative causes corresponding modifications in additional
marketing initiatives associated with the at least one marketing
initiative.

25. The system according to claim 14, further comprising selecting at
least one of the one or more online marketing initiatives for which
tracking data is to be received before the step of receiving, from the
one or more presentation servers, tracking data for at least one of the
one or more marketing initiatives.

26. A non-transitory executable storage medium having a computer program
embodied thereon, the computer program executable by a processor in a
computing system to perform a method for executing and optimizing the
performance of online marketing initiatives, the method comprising:
receiving, via a web server, input corresponding to one or more marketing
initiatives, each of the one or more online marketing initiatives
including at least one asset; generating, via the web server, one or more
online marketing initiatives from the received input; providing the one
or more online marketing initiatives to one or more presentation servers
for publishing the one or more marketing initiative to one or more
platforms; receiving, from the one or more presentation servers, tracking
data for at least one of the one or more marketing initiatives; comparing
the tracking data to one or more performance metrics to determine the
performance of the at least one marketing initiative; and storing at
least one of the tracking data and the performance metric in a database
coupled to at least one of the web server and the one or more
presentation servers.

27. A method for evaluating the performance of online marketing
initiatives, comprising: receiving, from one or more presentation
servers, tracking data for one or more online marketing initiatives, each
of the one or more online marketing initiatives including at least one
asset; comparing the tracking data to one or more performance metrics to
determine the performance of the at least one marketing initiative; and
storing at least one of the tracking data and the one or more performance
metrics in a database.

28. The method according to claim 27, further comprising generating a
visual representation of each performance metric and arranging the visual
representations together.

29. The method according to claim 27, wherein the at least one asset and
the at least one goal asset each include a unique uniform resource
indicator.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein tracking data for each of
the at least one asset and the at least one goal asset may be gathered
utilizing the unique uniform resource indicator.

31. The method according to claim 27, wherein the at least one online
marketing initiative includes a plurality of assets, the at least one
online marketing in initiative having a unique uniform resource indicator
and each of the plurality of assets have a unique uniform resource
indicator.

32. The method according to claim 27, further comprising receiving
selections of one or more unique uniform resource indicators
corresponding to one or more assets of one or more marketing initiatives
before the step of receiving tracking data such that the tracking data
received corresponds to the selected unique uniform resource indicators.

Description:

[0001] This nonprovisional patent application is related to U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 13/016,988 filed on Jan. 29, 2011, titled "SYSTEMS,
METHODS, AND MEDIA FOR MANAGING AMBIENT ADAPTABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
AND WEB SERVICES" and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/016,989 filed
on Jan. 29, 2011, titled "SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND MEDIA FOR WEB CONTENT
MANAGEMENT"--all of which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference
in their entirety including all references cited therein.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

[0002] The present technology relates generally to online marketing
initiatives, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to
systems, methods, and media for the execution and optimization of online
marketing initiatives.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Online marketing may be difficult at times because generating web
traffic or user interest online for a particular product or service can
be challenging, given the volume of possible purchase options,
advertisements and web sites that are available to a user online.

SUMMARY OF THE TECHNOLOGY

[0004] According to some embodiments, the present technology is directed
to methods for at least one of generating, executing, evaluating and
optimizing the performance of online marketing initiatives. The methods
may include: (a) receiving, via a web server, input corresponding to one
or more marketing initiatives, each of the one or more online marketing
initiatives including at least one asset; (b) generating, via the web
server, one or more online marketing initiatives from the received input;
(c) providing the one or more online marketing initiatives to one or more
presentation servers for publishing the one or more marketing initiative
to one or more platforms; (d) receiving, from the one or more
presentation servers, tracking data for at least one of the one or more
marketing initiatives; (e) comparing the tracking data to one or more
performance metrics to determine the performance of the at least one
marketing initiative; and (f) storing at least one of the tracking data
and the performance metric in a database coupled to at least one of the
web server and the one or more presentation servers.

[0005] According to other embodiments, the present technology may be
directed to systems for at least one of generating, executing, evaluating
and optimizing the performance of online marketing initiatives that
includes: (a) a memory for storing executable instructions for evaluating
the performance of online marketing initiatives; (b) a processor
configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory to: (a)
receiving, via a web server, input corresponding to one or more marketing
initiatives, each of the one or more online marketing initiatives
including at least one entry asset; (b) generating, via the web server,
one or more online marketing initiatives from the received input; (c)
publishing the one or more online marketing initiatives to one or more
presentation servers; (d) receiving, from the one or more presentation
servers, tracking data for at least one of the one or more marketing
initiatives; (e) comparing the tracking data to one or more performance
metrics to determine the performance of the at least one marketing
initiative; and (f) storing at least one of the tracking data and the
performance metric in a database coupled to at least one of the web
server and the one or more presentation servers.

[0006] According to some embodiments, the present technology may be
directed to non-transitory executable storage medium having a computer
program embodied thereon, the computer program executable by a processor
in a computing system to perform a method for at least one of generating,
executing, evaluating and optimizing the performance of online marketing
initiatives that includes: (a) receiving, via a web server, input
corresponding to one or more marketing initiatives, each of the one or
more online marketing initiatives including at least one asset; (b)
generating, via the web server, one or more online marketing initiatives
from the received input; (c) providing the one or more online marketing
initiatives to one or more presentation servers for publishing the one or
more marketing initiative to one or more platforms; (d) receiving, from
the one or more presentation servers, tracking data for at least one of
the one or more marketing initiatives; (e) comparing the tracking data to
one or more performance metrics to determine the performance of the at
least one marketing initiative; and (f) storing at least one of the
tracking data and the performance metric in a database coupled to at
least one of the web server and the one or more presentation servers.

[0007] In other embodiments, the present technology may be directed to
methods that include: (a) receiving, from one or more presentation
servers, tracking data for one or more online marketing initiatives, each
of the one or more online marketing initiatives including at least one
asset; (b) comparing the tracking data to one or more performance metrics
to determine the performance of the at least one marketing initiative;
and (c) storing at least one of the tracking data and the one or more
performance metrics in a database.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary architecture of a
system for generating, executing, evaluating and optimizing the
performance of online marketing initiatives. The system may be utilized
to practice aspects of the present technology.

[0010]FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary representation of a dashboard
generated by the application of FIG. 2 to receive input from end users
that may be utilized to generate online marketing initiatives.

[0011]FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary analytics interface having visual
representations of performance metrics for a single online marketing
initiative.

[0013]FIG. 6 is an exemplary flow diagram of a method for generating and
evaluating the performance of online marketing initiatives.

[0014] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system that may
be utilized to practice aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

[0015] While this technology is susceptible of embodiment in many
different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be
described in detail several specific embodiments with the understanding
that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of
the principles of the technology and is not intended to limit the
technology to the embodiments illustrated.

[0016] Generally speaking, the systems and methods provided herein may be
adapted to generate online marketing initiatives, to evaluate the
performance of the same and to bring about changes in the online
marketing initiatives to improve and/or optimize performance. Broadly
speaking, the systems and methods provided herein may allow end users to
create online marketing initiatives that include one or more assets,
track visitors and the actions they perform on assets, and process and
display statistical data about the progress of an online marketing
initiative.

[0017] Exemplary online marketing explorer interfaces provided herein may
offer end users a mechanism for building online marketing initiatives
that are consistent across a plurality of platforms. It will be
understood that the term "platform" may be understood to include RSS and
news feeds, web content aggregator, web engine, one or more web pages,
social networking medias, search engine, online ad engine, banner engine,
online news groups, forums, and web applications (both standard and
mobile), and any combinations thereof--just to name a few. Therefore, end
users may effectively and simultaneously create online marketing
initiatives for a plurality of platforms in one convenient application.

[0018] In addition to creating online marketing initiatives across a
plurality of platforms, the systems and methods may allow end users to
create localized online marketing initiatives for a plurality of
languages and/or countries. These localized online marketing initiatives
may inherit portions of a global marketing framework, but may be
customized to target a particular group or groups of consumers.

[0019] The online marketing explorer allows end users to quickly and
efficiently build online marketing initiatives from pre-defined assets
such as banners, hyperlinks, web pages, and the like. Each of the
marketing initiatives include one or more goals that are functionally
related to one or more assets such that visitors accessing an asset
associated with the online marketing initiatives are directed to the one
or more goals. In some embodiments, the goals may include a landing page,
one or more videos, one or more images, and the like. End users may
associate one or more assets with a goal via linking within the online
marketing explorer interface, as will be discussed in greater detail
herein.

[0020] Stated otherwise, the online marketing initiatives of the present
technology may be generally described as including persuasive content
(e.g., assets). The performance of online marketing initiatives may be
measured by tracking visitor data relative to the assets of the online
marketing initiatives, the online marketing initiatives themselves,
information corresponding to the visitors, and combinations thereof.

[0021] It will be understood that the performance of an online marketing
initiative may be generally referred to as a "performance metric." End
users may define one or more performance metrics for each online
marketing initiative that allow the end user to determine and gather
statistical data relative to the online marketing initiative. For
example, an end user may want to determine how many click-throughs a
particular interactive banner advertisement is generating in a given
period of time.

[0022] Alternatively, the end user may wish to determine an aggregate
number of unique visitors that are accessing the interactive banner
advertisement in a given period of time. Performance metrics may also be
collected and evaluated in light of demographic information gather from
the visitors utilizing the interactive banner advertisement. One of
ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many other performance
metrics that correspond to the performance of online marketing initiative
may be gathered utilizing the systems and methods of the present
technology. Moreover, as performance metrics are end user defined, the
performance metrics are not limited to any particular configuration or
requirements and may depend upon the unique needs of the end user.

[0023] Assets may be received from a global marketing framework (also
known as a "Content Blueprint") associated with a content management
application, as described in greater detail with regard to U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 13/016,989 filed on Jan. 29, 2011, titled "SYSTEMS,
METHODS, AND MEDIA FOR WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT". Moreover, the online
marketing explorer provides end users with the ability to modify the
contents of an asset. For example, the online marketing explorer may be
operatively associated with the content management application such that
end users may utilize portions of the functionalities of the content
management application from inside the online marketing explorer.

[0024] Once a marketer has established one or more online marketing
initiatives, the one or more online marketing initiatives may be provided
to a plurality of presentation servers for publishing. For example,
online marketing initiatives designed for social networking medias (e.g.,
text and hyperlink assets) are provided to the appropriate social
networking medias and online marketing initiatives designed for
deployment on a retail website (e.g., an interactive banner asset) may be
provided to the appropriate web server hosting the retail website, or may
be published on another web server and reference to the interactive
banner asset may be embedded into the retail website.

[0025] Over time, visitor interaction with the online marketing
initiatives is monitored by evaluating each of the presentation servers
for various types of visitor interactions relative to the online
marketing initiatives associated therewith. Evaluation of the visitor
interactions may yield tracking data that corresponds to which of the
assets of the online marketing initiatives the visitors interacted with,
or whether an entry asset successfully led visitors to the at least one
goal asset. It will be understood that the systems and methods of the
present technology may be adapted to monitor and evaluate any type of
visitor information generated by the presentation servers.

[0026] The systems and methods may then generate performance reports
corresponding to the whether the online marketing initiatives are
achieving their individual goals. Additionally, systems and methods may
be adapted to provide these performance reports in a readily
ascertainable format such as a visual representation that utilizes colors
or shapes to indicate performance.

[0027] The performance reports or tracking data generated by the
presentation servers may be utilized by the end users to easily identify
successful marketing campaigns and modify or suspend unsuccessful
marketing campaigns. These and other function and implementational
details regarding the systems and methods of the present technology will
be described in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 1-7.

[0028] Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of an exemplary
architecture 100 for practicing aspects of the present technology is
depicted. Generally speaking, the architecture may include a plurality of
client devices 105A (shown herein as a single client device 105A) that
are communicatively coupled with a web server 110 via a network 115A. The
network 115A may include a public computer network such as the Internet,
or a private computer network such as a wireless telecommunication
network, wide area network, or local area network, or a combination of
networks.

[0029] The web server 110 may be adapted to evaluating the performance of
online marketing initiatives. For example, the web server 110 may be
adapted to generate one or more user interfaces that may be utilized by
end users (e.g., marketers, content managers, and so forth) to input
information corresponding to online marketing initiatives that may be
utilized to generate one or more marketing initiatives. The marketing
initiatives may be created for utilization across a wide array of
platforms such as web pages, social networking media, and so forth.

[0030] Once the marketing initiatives have been generated, the marketing
initiatives may be provided to a plurality of presentation servers 120
(shown herein as a single presentation server 120 for the purposes of
brevity) via the network 115A. The marketing initiatives may then be
published or made available to visitor devices the client systems 105A.

[0031] Tracking data may be obtained from visitor devices 105B from
visitor interaction with the presentation servers 120 via one or more
types of tracking mechanisms such as cookies resident on the visitor
devices 105B and/or server monitors, all of which will be discussed in
greater detail below. It will be understood that the visitor devices 105B
may communicatively connect with the presentations server 120 via a
network 115B, which may include a public network such as the Internet.

[0032] While the architecture 100 has been disclosed as including the web
server 110 and the presentation server 120, one of ordinary skill in the
art with the present disclosure before them will appreciate that the
architecture may include any number or configuration of web servers and
presentation servers, which may include distributed computing systems
such as a cloud computing system (not shown).

[0033] Both the client device 105A and visitor device 105B may include any
general purpose computing system that may implement a web browser
application or other suitable applications adapted to request and provide
information (such as web content) to and from a web sever 110. A suitable
example of the client device 105A and the visitor device 105B may include
the computing system 700 disclosed with reference to FIG. 7.
Additionally, the web servers 110 and the presentation servers 120 may
also include many of the components of computing system 700, although
specific implementational and structural details regarding the web
servers 110 and the presentation servers 120 will be provided below.

[0034] Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2 collectively, the web server 110 may
be described as a particular purpose computing system that includes
executable instructions that when executed by the processor of the web
server 110, cause the web servers 110 to generate and evaluate the
performance of online marketing initiatives. It will be understood that
generating online marketing initiatives may also include publishing of
online marketing initiatives to the presentation sever 120, making the
online marketing initiatives accessible to visitors via visitor device
105B. While the executable instructions resident on the web server 110
may include any number of modules, engines, applications, functions, and
so forth, for the purposes of clarity, the executable instructions may be
generally described as an application 200 having one or more modules.

[0035] Generally speaking, the application 200 may include a user
interface module 205, an initiative management module 210, and an
aggregation module 215. It will be understood that the application 200
may include fewer or more modules and/or engines and still fall within
the scope of the present technology.

[0036] In other embodiments, the application 200 includes a standalone
application that may interact with a content management application 220,
although one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the
application 200 may be a constituent component of the content management
application 220 as well.

[0037] In practice, the application 200 is adapted to receive data from
the content management application 220 that may be utilized by end users
to create online marketing initiatives across a wide array of platforms.
For example, a content manager may utilize the content management
application 220 to create a global marketing framework (not shown), or
content blueprint. The content manager may build assets that may be
utilized by end users within the context of the application 200 to create
online marketing initiatives. While the content management application
includes a wide variety of additional functionalities, further details
regarding the content management application are beyond the scope of this
document.

[0038] Non-limiting examples of assets include, a banner, a hyperlink, a
video file (or collection of video files), an audio file (or collection
of video files), an image file (or collection of image files), a web
page, an advertisement, and so forth. Moreover, an asset may include
interactive properties such that visitor interaction with the asset
produces a result. For example, a visitor clicking on an interactive
banner advertisement may cause a redirection of the web browser of the
visitor to another web page. One of ordinary skill in the art will be
fluent with the creation and contents of online marketing assets,
therefore, a comprehensive discussion of the details and creation of
these assets will not be provided.

[0039] Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3 collectively, according to some
embodiments, the user interface module 205 may be adapted to generate and
display a wide variety of graphical user interfaces and visual
representations of data. For example, the user interface module 205 may
generate a graphical user interface in the form of a dashboard 300. The
dashboard 300 may include a plurality of sections such as a ribbon
toolbar 305, an asset library 310, a workspace 315, an asset detail pane
320, and an initiative navigation bar 325.

[0040] The ribbon toolbar 305 may include a plurality of actions available
for the current section, such as open, save, remove, publish, and so
forth. End users may select one or more assets from the asset library 310
that includes a plurality of containers 330 that each include one or more
assets that have been categorized under the associated container. Broad
container categories may include, but are not limited to, templates
(predefined collections of assets), initiatives (previously created
initiatives that include assets), components for web pages, and the like.
End users may access assets efficiently by clicking on the containers 330
and selecting a desired asset. In some embodiments, the asset may be
dragged to the workspace 315.

[0041] Workspace 315 is shown as including assets 335a, 335b, and 335c,
which together collectively represent an online marketing initiative 340.
The asset detail pane 320 provides end users with the ability to
selectively modify the attributes of individual assets. The initiative
navigation bar 325 provides end users with the ability to manage the
creation of multiple online marketing initiatives within the application
200 at one time. Flow paths 345 indicate the flow between one or more
assets. For example, entry asset 335a is associated with an interactive
banner that, when clicked, flows via flow path 345 to a goal asset 335c
that includes a video advertisement.

[0042] Additionally, the user interface module 205 may generate graphical
displays of tracking data or performance reports in the form visual
representations, which are described in greater detail with reference to
FIGS. 4-6. The user interface module 205 may also generate a wide variety
of additional menus, displays, and so forth that enable end users to
interact with the application 200.

[0043] After end users have utilized the dashboard 300 to create online
marketing initiative, the end users may define the performance metrics to
be determined for specific assets or the entire online marketing asset.
The performance metrics may dictate the type of tracking data that is
obtained from the presentation server 120.

[0044] For example, an end user may add and/or define specific entry
assets in the workspace 315 and specify that all tracking data relative
to the specific entry assets should be gathered. As such, generic
tracking of data such as Google ads data may be gathered from a single
Google ad referrer for a specific entry asset, or plurality of Google ads
that function as individual entry assets. Specific performance metrics
would include channel parameters that allow the reporting aggregators 230
to identify social networking actions (e.g., retweets, reposts, and so
forth) through a social networking media application, or an associated
referrer application operatively coupled with the social networking media
application. These types of information may be gathered aggregately, or
with reference to a particular period of time to determine the
performance of the online marketing initiative over the specified period
of time.

[0045] It will be understood that apart from specified referrers (e.g.,
entry assets), all data generated by referrers to entry assets (up to a
maximum depending on performance) may be tracked and stored. In some
embodiments, the reporting aggregators 230 may be adapted to identify
unique hits to individual entry assets. Where it is not possible to
identify unique referrers, such as when entry assets are unique URLs, the
tracking data may not be presented in any graphical views, but may be
provided for download and further manual aggregation.

[0046] After end users have utilized the dashboard 300 to create one or
more online marketing initiatives, the end users may provide the online
marketing initiatives to the presentation servers 120 by clicking the
publish button of the ribbon toolbar 305 the presentation servers 120
then publishes the one or more online marketing initiatives.

[0047] The user interface module 205 communicates the received input to
the initiative management module 210 that may be adapted to create online
marketing initiatives from the received input. Additionally, the
initiative management module 210 may be adapted to store the online
marketing initiatives in a database associated with the web server 110.

[0048] Upon clicking the publish button, the application 200 may compile
or otherwise prepare the one or more online marketing initiatives for
delivery to the presentation servers 120 in a format that may allows the
presentation servers 120 to publish the online marketing initiatives.
Moreover, if an online marketing initiative that is compiled or prepared
is a global initiative that is associated with a plurality of dependent
publications, the plurality of dependent initiatives may be
simultaneously compiled or prepared and published across a plurality of
websites associated with a plurality of presentations servers 120.

[0049] Turning again to FIG. 1, each of the presentation servers 120 may
include a tracking module 125 and a tracking core 130 that may be
operatively associated with a content broker database 135. The tracking
module 125 may be adapted to gather information regarding the
interactions of visitors with data published on the presentation server
120. In some embodiments, the tracking module 125 may include an ambient
data framework that provides a flexible and configurable framework for
gathering and transforming a wide array of presentation server data that
corresponds to web content hosted thereon. According to some embodiments,
the tracking module 125 may include an ambient data framework as
described with greater detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
13/016,988 filed on Jan. 29, 2011, titled "SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND MEDIA
FOR MANAGING AMBIENT ADAPTABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS AND WEB SERVICES."

[0050] In some applications, the tracking module 125 may create a
client-side cookie to track anonymous visitors (and recognized visitors)
and a session cookie to store information about the visitor session. The
tracking module 125 may be called on each request for web content hosted
by the presentation server 120 to generate and store various types of
tracking data.

[0051] By way of non-limiting example, the tracking module 125 may be
adapted to determine and store tracking data that includes, time stamps
that correspond to a time at which a request for web content was received
by the presentation server 120, along with a unique visitor
identification assigned by the presentation server to each request for
web content. Tracking data may include an external referrer uniform
resource locator (URL), if any, which corresponds to the URL of the web
content through which the visitor entered.

[0052] In some embodiments, the tracking module 125 may be adapted to
track the assets of online marketing initiatives published on the
presentation server 120 by way of uniform resource indicators (URI)
associated with each of the assets. For example, the tracking data may
also include an internal referrer URI, if any, which corresponds to the
URI of another page from which the user arrives. In some embodiments,
tracking data may include computing system data such as a media access
control (MAC) address, an Internet protocol (IP) address, an operating
system version, a web browser version, and so forth.

[0053] In other embodiments, the tracking data may include a contact
identification URI and mailing identification URI, if an outbound
electronic mail link(s) is clicked by the visitor, along with URIs of
visited web pages and/or web page template data. Additionally, tracking
data may include visitor data gathered from cookies placed on the visitor
device 105B.

[0054] Additionally, the tracking data may include a list of assets on a
web page such as asset identification information and asset template
identification URI pairs associated with a web page.

[0055] The tracking core 130 of the presentation server 120 may handle the
persisting of visitor tracking data to the content broker database 135.
End users may select an instance of the content broker database 135 to
which they desire to store tracking data in a configuration file.

[0056] In other embodiments, the tracking core 130 may also handle
requests from synchronization targets configured in the content
management application 220 for collecting visitor session data. For
example, the tracking core 130 may keep track of visitor sessions that
have not changed for a given period of time. These synchronization
targets may gather visitor session data according to a predetermined
schedule. For example, end users may configure the session timeout (which
may include any period of time, but may include a default time period of
approximately 20 minutes) in a configuration file utilized by the
tracking module 125.

[0057] The synchronization target 140 may be adapted to push or otherwise
communicate the URIs of tracked assets to the presentation server 120 and
provide tracking data collected by the presentation server 120 to the
application 200. The tracking data may be utilized by the aggregation
module 215 to generate performance reports corresponding to the
performance of the online marketing initiatives.

[0058] The synchronization target 140 provides end users with the ability
to configure, for example, a URL to the presentation server 120 where
tracking data may be collected for analysis by the aggregation module
215. The URL may point to a tracking module 125 such as a web page, a web
form, a javaserver page, a .NET aspx web forms, and/or hypertext markup
language documents, deployed on the presentation server 120 that
communicates with the tracking core 130 to retrieve tracking data via the
synchronization target 215.

[0059] For applications where end users desire to publish online marketing
initiatives to a plurality of presentation servers 120, end users may
configure a separate synchronization target 140 for each presentation
server 120. The synchronization target 140 may communicate with the
tracking core 130 at configured intervals to identify visitor sessions
that have not changed in within the predetermined period of time
establish by the end users.

[0060] The aggregation module 215 may function as a conduit for processing
tracking data received via one or more synchronization targets 215. The
aggregation module 215 may be adapted to receive tracking data from
synchronization targets 215 and provide the tracking data to one or more
aggregators 230. The aggregators 230 may each retrieve details regarding
the online marketing initiative associated with the tracking data (e.g.,
associated with the asset(s)), in order to save the proper tracking data
for each marketing initiative. That is, the aggregation module 215 may be
adapted to receive information such as URIs that correspond to assets
that are to be tracked.

[0061] The aggregation module 215 may also function to persist tracking
data aggregated by the aggregators 230 in an aggregation database 135
associated with the web server 110.

[0062] In some additional embodiments, the aggregation module 215 may be
adapted to retrieve tracking data from a tracking module 125 via a
synchronization target 220 that corresponds to one or more assets
associated with one or more online marketing initiatives. That is, the
aggregation module 215 may retrieve tracking data for an online marketing
initiative that includes an interactive banner associated with a landing
page advertisement such as a video. The interactive banner may be
referred to as an "entry" asset because the visitor "enters" the online
marketing initiative through the interactive banner.

[0063] Tracking data relative to the online marketing initiative may
include an aggregate number of times visitors clicked the interactive
banner and subsequently clicked or utilized the advertisement associated
with the landing page. As such, the aggregation module 215 may be adapted
to determine if visitors who click the interactive banner actually play
the video advertisement associated with the landing page.

[0064] In other embodiments, tracking data for individual assets or online
marketing initiatives may be utilized by the aggregation module 215 to
determine a variety of user-defined performance metrics that assist end
user in determining specific quantifiable information corresponding to
their online marketing initiatives. For example, tracking data may be
utilized to determine if visitors reacted favorably to the assets such as
campaign drivers. Tracking data may be utilized to determine overall
number of visitors that viewed specific online marketing initiative
assets.

[0065] More detailed performance metrics may include the ability to
determine how visitors reacted to particular assets. For example, the
percentage of visitors who viewed a given asset and subsequently
successfully completed viewing or interacting with additional assets of
the online marketing initiative in the same visit. In another example,
performance metrics may include a percentage of visitors who viewed an
asset and did not view or interact with additional assets of the online
marketing initiative in the same visit.

[0066] In additional embodiments, if tracking data is being gathered for a
goal asset, the end user may see a percentage of visitors to the online
marketing initiatives that successfully interacted with the goal asset
(as a percentage of the overall visitors to the online marketing
initiatives), or potentially view the percentage of visitors that failed
to successfully interact with the goal asset.

[0067] Examples of performance metrics for lead generation may include the
number of visitors that complete a web form, the percentage of visitors
that viewed the web form and completed the form, and a breakdown of
visitors that viewed the web form by an entry asset.

[0068] Examples of performance metrics for awareness may include visitors
that viewed an asset or a set of assets, or a percentage of visitors that
viewed the asset and completed the web form associated with the asset,
along with a breakdown of visitors that viewed the web form by accessing
the web form via an entry asset.

[0069] Examples of performance metrics that may be utilized to ensure that
more visitors complete the web form that during a first given period of
time include determining a percentage of visitors that viewed the web
form and completed the web form during a baseline period of time as
compared to the current statistics of the online marketing initiative
during a subsequent period of time.

[0070] Examples of performance metrics for improving and/or updating
contacts may include determining visitors that filled in a profile, where
the end user specifies the minimum characteristics that must be updated
to qualify. It will be understood that tracking data may include the
percentage of visitors that viewed the form that filled in the profile
appropriately and/or a breakdown of visitors that viewed the web form by
way of an entry asset.

[0071] As such, the aggregation module 215 may be adapted to organize the
tracking data for individual online marketing initiatives that may be
utilized by the user interface module 205 to generate and display visual
representations of a performance metric that corresponds to the one or
more online marketing initiatives relative to end user define goals.

[0072] More specifically, the application 200 may allow end users to
specify one or more goals for a particular marketing initiative. For
example, a goal may include a particular number of unique visitors
clicking on an interactive banner that passes the visitor through to a
video that includes an advertisement. Visitors clicking on and playing
the video are recorded as a successful event. The goal may be defined as
ten unique visitors who play the video each day. These goals may be
selectively modified by the end user and may provide the end user with a
wide array of analytical information regarding online marketing
initiatives.

[0073] Based upon the defined goals, the synchronization targets 215
associated with the online marketing initiatives cause the tracking
module 125 to gather appropriate tracking data for each of the assets of
the online marketing initiatives that are associated with the goals. The
synchronization targets 215 may communicate the tracking data to one or
more aggregators 230 of the aggregation module 215 for processing. Visual
representations may then be generated from the tracking data that provide
the end user with readily ascertainable information about the performance
metrics of online marketing initiatives. That is, performance metrics may
be defined as the comparison of tracking data of assets relative to one
or more the goals.

[0074] Because the aggregation module 215 may be adapted to track assets
by a unique URI, the aggregation module 215 may evaluate visitor
interactions with the presentation server 120 in terms of performance
metrics, rather than more ambiguous data such as whether a visitor
requests web content from the presentation server 120. As such, the
application 200 may be utilized to specifically track the efficacy of the
combination of certain assets and evaluate online marketing initiatives
having different combinations of assets relative to one another.

[0075] End users may utilize the visual representations as the basis for
intelligent modification of existing online marketing initiatives or
building future online marketing initiatives.

[0076] In other embodiments, the tracking data may also include
demographic information corresponding to the number and/or types of
visitors accessing the online marketing initiatives. Therefore, in
addition to determining the performance of online marketing initiatives,
the application 200 may provide end users with demographic information
that is directly correlated to online marketing initiatives.

[0077] For example, an end user may determine that online marketing
initiatives created for social networking media achieve 100% of their
goals for visitors that fall within an age range of 18-34 years old.
Conversely, online marketing initiatives created for social networking
media achieve on 5% of their goals for visitors that fall within an age
range of 45-60 years old. Therefore, the end users may intelligently
design online additional marketing initiatives for visitors that fall
within an age range of 18-34 years old for social networking media.

[0078] Additionally, the ability of the application 200 to continuously
gather tracking data from the presentation servers 120 allows end users
to modify the assets of an underperforming online marketing initiative
during its life span, rather than waiting until the end of the life span
of the online marketing initiative to determine the efficacy of the
online marketing initiative. The tracking data may also allow end users
to define a life span of an online marketing campaign and periodically
determine the time remaining in the life span of the online marketing
initiative.

[0079] Referring now to FIG. 4, an exemplary analytics interface 400 is
shown as comprising a visual representation of an online marketing
initiative that includes a pie chart 405 corresponding to an amount or
type of successful and unsuccessful events associated with the online
marketing initiative. The interface 400 also includes a bar graph 410
chronicling the life of the online marketing initiative along a given
timeline. The interface 400 may also include a detail pane 415 that
allows an end user to specify the way in which the interface 400 displays
the tracking data.

[0080] The detail pane 415 allows end users to specify the goal of the
interactive marketing initiative that may be utilized as the basis for
creating visual representations of tracking data.

[0081] Referring now to FIG. 5, an additional exemplary analytics
interface 500 is shown as comprising a plurality of visual
representations 505a-f that provide an easily ascertainable comparison of
a plurality of online marketing initiatives that correspond to a common
global marketing framework. Each of the visual representations 505a-f
includes an image that corresponds to a particular online marketing
initiative. Moreover, each of the images of the visual representations
505a-f may initially be slightly transparent. As tracking data is
collected and successful events are recorded relative to the goal
associated with the online marketing initiative, the visual
representations 505a-f may change. For example, visual representation
505a is shown as having achieved 78% of the goal associated therewith. To
represent the achievements, approximately 78% the image of visual
representation 505a is darkened, and the textual information of "78%" may
be overlaid upon the image.

[0082] Although not shown, the analytics interface 500 may be adapted to
display a variety of predefined performance metrics including, but not
limited to top performing online marketing initiatives that are currently
live, the worst performing online marketing initiatives that are
currently live, the worst performing assets that are currently in use in
an online marketing initiative, the best performing online marketing
initiatives so far (closed online marketing initiatives and currently in
progress), online marketing initiatives in planning stages, and recently
modified online marketing initiatives.

[0083] According to other embodiments, rather than darkening the image
associated with a visual representation, the visual representations may
include one or more colors corresponding to a current status of the
online marketing initiative relative to the goal associated therewith.
For example, if the visual representation is red, the online marketing
initiative is not currently achieving the goals associated therewith. If
the visual representation is green, then the online marketing initiative
is achieving the goal.

[0084] As stated previously, end users may utilize the application 200 to
create localized online marketing initiatives for a plurality of
languages and/or countries. The localized online marketing initiatives
may inherit portions of a global marketing framework, but may be
customized to target a particular group or groups of consumers. Utilizing
the above-described performance evaluation methods, end users may
evaluate localized online marketing initiatives and determine successful
and/or unsuccessful localized online marketing initiatives. Based upon
such data, end users may selectively modify one or more underperforming
localized online marketing initiatives by incorporating successful assets
from one or more successful localized online marketing initiatives into
the one or more underperforming localized online marketing initiatives.

[0085] Utilizing the same techniques, other types of unsuccessful online
marketing initiatives may be selectively modified to more closely
resemble successful online marketing initiatives. Selective modification
of unsuccessful online marketing initiatives may include adding,
removing, or modifying assets. For example, an end user may specify that
the performance metric for an online marketing campaign includes a given
number of unique visitors clicking on an interactive banner advertisement
within each hour. As such, tracking data may indicate that the
interactive banner advertisement is not successfully achieving the
performance metric established by the end user. Rather than waiting until
the end of the life span of the online marketing initiative, the end user
may utilize the application 200 to replace the interactive banner with an
interactive video, or may modify any portion of the asset, such as the
size or appearance of the interactive banner. In further exemplary
embodiments, the user may modify the flow path of one or more assets.
Changes to the assets of the online marketing initiative are immediately
pushed to the presentation server 120, and the performance of the
modified online marketing initiative may be monitored by obtaining
tracking data for the modified assets.

[0086] Changes in the performance of the selectively modified online
marketing initiatives may be quantified or verified by subsequent
tracking via the application 200.

[0087] Referring now to FIG. 6, a method 600 for evaluating the
performance of online marketing initiatives is shown. In exemplary
embodiments, the steps of the method 600 are performed by a web server
adapted to generate and evaluate the performance of online marketing
initiatives. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the
steps of the method 600 may also occur on one or more web servers, one or
more presentation servers, or across a distributed computing system such
as a cloud computing system.

[0088] In some embodiments, the method 600 may include the step 605 of
receiving input corresponding to one or more marketing initiatives. The
input may be received from one or more end users via a graphical user
interface that provides a collaborative framework for multiple end users
to create a cohesive online marketing strategy that may be distributed
across a wide variety of platforms such as web pages and social
networking media.

[0089] It will be understood that each of the one or more online marketing
initiatives may include at least one entry asset associated with at least
one goal asset. The method 600 may also include the step 610 of
generating one or more online marketing initiatives from the received
input.

[0090] Next, the method 600 may include the step 615 of providing the one
or more online marketing initiatives to one or more presentation servers
for publishing the one or more online marketing initiatives to one or
more platforms. After the presentation server has published the one or
more marketing initiatives, the method 600 may include the step 620 of
receiving tracking data for at least one of the one or more online
marketing initiatives from the presentation servers.

[0091] The method 600 may then include the step 625 of comparing the
received tracking data to the at least one goal asset to determine a
performance metric for the at least one marketing initiative. The
performance metrics may be displayed to the end user in an easily
understood visual format that enables the end user to quickly determine
the performance of the one or more online marketing initiatives. The
method 600 may also include a step 630 of storing at least one of the
tracking data and the performance metric in a database coupled to at
least one of the web server and the one or more presentation servers.

[0092] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary computing system 700 that may be
used to implement an embodiment of the present technology. The computing
system 700 of FIG. 7 includes one or more processors 710 and memory 720.
Main memory 720 stores, in part, instructions and data for execution by
processor 710. Main memory 720 can store the executable code when the
system 700 is in operation. The system 700 of FIG. 7 may further include
a mass storage device 730, portable storage medium drive(s) 740, output
devices 750, user input devices 760, a graphics display 740, and other
peripheral devices 780.

[0093] The components shown in FIG. 7 are depicted as being connected via
a single bus 790. The components may be connected through one or more
data transport means. Processor unit 710 and main memory 720 may be
connected via a local microprocessor bus, and the mass storage device
730, peripheral device(s) 780, portable storage device 740, and display
system 770 may be connected via one or more input/output (I/O) buses.

[0094] Mass storage device 730, which may be implemented with a magnetic
disk drive or an optical disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device for
storing data and instructions for use by processor unit 710. Mass storage
device 730 can store the system software for implementing embodiments of
the present technology for purposes of loading that software into main
memory 710.

[0095] Portable storage device 740 operates in conjunction with a portable
non-volatile storage medium, such as a floppy disk, compact disk or
Digital video disc, to input and output data and code to and from the
computer system 700 of FIG. 7. The system software for implementing
embodiments of the present technology may be stored on such a portable
medium and input to the computer system 700 via the portable storage
device 740.

[0096] Input devices 760 provide a portion of a user interface. Input
devices 760 may include an alphanumeric keypad, such as a keyboard, for
inputting alphanumeric and other information, or a pointing device, such
as a mouse, a trackball, stylus, or cursor direction keys. Additionally,
the system 700 as shown in FIG. 7 includes output devices 750. Suitable
output devices include speakers, printers, network interfaces, and
monitors.

[0097] Display system 770 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) or
other suitable display device. Display system 770 receives textual and
graphical information, and processes the information for output to the
display device.

[0098] Peripherals 780 may include any type of computer support device to
add additional functionality to the computer system. Peripheral device(s)
780 may include a modem or a router.

[0099] The components contained in the computer system 700 of FIG. 7 are
those typically found in computer systems that may be suitable for use
with embodiments of the present technology and are intended to represent
a broad category of such computer components that are well known in the
art. Thus, the computer system 700 of FIG. 7 can be a personal computer,
hand held computing system, telephone, mobile computing system,
workstation, server, minicomputer, mainframe computer, or any other
computing system. The computer can also include different bus
configurations, networked platforms, multi-processor platforms, etc.
Various operating systems can be used including UNIX, Linux, Windows,
Macintosh OS, Palm OS, and other suitable operating systems.

[0100] Some of the above-described functions may be composed of
instructions that are stored on storage media (e.g., computer-readable
medium). The instructions may be retrieved and executed by the processor.
Some examples of storage media are memory devices, tapes, disks, and the
like. The instructions are operational when executed by the processor to
direct the processor to operate in accord with the technology. Those
skilled in the art are familiar with instructions, processor(s), and
storage media.

[0101] It is noteworthy that any hardware platform suitable for performing
the processing described herein is suitable for use with the technology.
The terms "computer-readable storage medium" and "computer-readable
storage media" as used herein refer to any medium or media that
participate in providing instructions to a CPU for execution. Such media
can take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media,
volatile media and transmission media. Non-volatile media include, for
example, optical or magnetic disks, such as a fixed disk. Volatile media
include dynamic memory, such as system RAM. Transmission media include
coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, among others, including the
wires that comprise one embodiment of a bus. Transmission media can also
take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during
radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) data communications. Common forms
of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a
flexible disk, a hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a
CD-ROM disk, digital video disk (DVD), any other optical medium, any
other physical medium with patterns of marks or holes, a RAM, a PROM, an
EPROM, an EEPROM, a FLASHEPROM, any other memory chip or data exchange
adapter, a carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer can
read.

[0102] Various forms of computer-readable media may be involved in
carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to a CPU for
execution. A bus carries the data to system RAM, from which a CPU
retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by
system RAM can optionally be stored on a fixed disk either before or
after execution by a CPU.

[0103] The above description is illustrative and not restrictive. Many
variations of the technology will become apparent to those of skill in
the art upon review of this disclosure. The scope of the technology
should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above
description, but instead should be determined with reference to the
appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.